Language distribution in Israel - from Amharic to Yevanic

Ilan Stavans' Resurrecting Hebrew (Schocken 2008) quotes Bar Ilan's Professor Bernard Spolsky (page 78), who cites his language policy work analyzing the 1983 census question on language, From Monolingual to Multilingual? Educational Language Policy in Israel by Elana Shohamy and Bernard Spolsky (2002, Tel Aviv University) and cites work done in the 90's.

approximately

4,500,000 Israelis are estimated to have functional competence in Hebrew (500,000 or 9% as a second language)

910,000 speakers of Palestinian Arabic and

1,600,000 speakers of Arabic in Gaza and the West Bank

800,000 of Russian

485,000 of Judeo-Arabic (which includes Moroccan Judeo-Arabic, Iraqi Judeo-Arabic, Yemeni Judeo-Arabic, Tunisian Judeo-Arabic, Tripolitanian Judeo-Arabic)

250,000 of Rumanian

215,000 of Yiddish

200,000 of French

100,000 of English first-language users

100,000 of Spanish

60,000 of Hungarian

60,000 of Persian

60,000 of Amharic

50,000 of other languages of the former Soviet Union

200,000 of other languages of foreign workers ; 300,000 according to Haaretz (July 2009)

and an unspecified number of speakers of

Ladino, Polish, German, Judeo-Persona (Dzidi) Bukaric, Judeo-Georgian, Judeo-Tat(Juduri), Judeo-Neo-Aramaic, Bulgarian, Turkish, Indian languages, Tigrinya, Italian, Israeli Sign Language, Portuguese, Circassian (Adyghe), Armenian, Dutch, Greek, Serbian, Czech, Judeo-Berber, Aramaic, and Judeo-Greek (Yevanic).

Why and Wherefore / למה ומדוע

[madu'a מדוע, la-mah למה]
"In Hebrew, there are two expressions for 'why' - madua and lamah. Madua means Mah dei'ah - What do I learn from this? And Lamah means 'L'Mah? - To what end?' How do I grow and become better from this?"

from Nothing is as simple as it looks, by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis (Sep 23 2009)

Others have also asked "why and why": http://translate.google.co

m/translate_s?hl=en&clss=&q=why+and+why&tq=&sl=en&tl=iw

Jonah and the Whale Song (tune: I had a little dreidel)

This has more to do with Judaism in pre-school than with the Hebrew language, but I can't find the lyrics to this particular version on the internet. Here's a linguistic angle: Nineveh / נינוה lies within modern-day Mosul / الموصل‎ in Iraq. What better time than the week of Rosh Chodesh Elul / ראש חדש אלול to transcribe this ? (tune) Thanks to Morah Chana and Morah Cha-Cha.

There was a man named Jonah.
He was swallowed by a whale.
He did tshuva for three days and nights
and lived to tell the tale.

Refrain:
Oh Jonah, Jonah, Jonah,
was swallowed by a whale.
Oh Jonah, Jonah, Jonah,
he lived to tell the tale.

There was a man named Jonah.
Hashem sent him to Ninveh.
The people there were wicked
and had to change their way.

Refrain

But Jonah didn't listen.
To a ship he ran away.
So, Hashem sent a great big storm
to help Jonah to obey.

Refrain

So Jonah did Teshuva in the belly of the whale.
Hashem gave him one more chance,
this time he did not fail.

Refrain.

A pre-schooler's version of the story of Jonah and the Big Fish :
Hashem told Jonah to go to Ninveh and tell the King that the people were wicked. Jonah was afraid the people of Ninveh would hurt him so he ran away and bought a ticket on a boat. There was a big storm and the people on the boat drew sticks. Jonah got the black stick and told the people on the boat that he didn't listen to Hashem. They threw him overboard and Jonah was swallowed by a whale. He did Tehsuvah for three days and Hashem gave him one more chance to listen. Then Jonah went to Ninveh and told the King the people had to stop being wicked.

Pslam 117 transliterated into Arabic (draft)

Perhaps because it is pithy or perhaps because of its onomatopoeia, this is my favorite expression of praise for the Almighty.

At minute 2:52, you can hear a jew-grass version of Psalm 117 .
There is a 1970's Hebrew version (Hallelu, from Baruch Chait) available by request or as a clip.

(א)
הַלְלוּ אֶת־ה כָּל־גֹּויִם
هَلِّلُ ات ا كل جاوىم

שבְּחוּהוּ כָּל־הָאֻמִּים׃
شبخوهو كل ها امىم

(ב)
כִּי גָבַר עָלֵינוּ חַסְדו

וֶאֱמֶת־יְהוָה לְעֹולָם הַלְלוּ־יָהּ׃


1 سَبِّحُوا الرَّبَّ يَا كُلَّ الأُمَمِ. حَمِّدُوهُ يَا كُلَّ الشُّعُوبِ.

2 لأَنَّ رَحْمَتَهُ قَدْ قَوِيَتْ عَلَيْنَا وَأَمَانَةُ الرَّبِّ إِلَى الدَّهْرِ. هَلِّلُويَا.

117 مزامير
mizmor ק'ז

References, retrieved today:
http://scripturetext.com/psalms/117-1.htm
תהילים 117:1 Hebrew OT: WLC (Consonants & Vowels) (with two emendations)
תהילים 117:2 Hebrew OT: WLC (Consonants & Vowels)
http://www.copticchurch.net/cgibin/bible/index.php?r=psalms+117&showVN=1&version=SVD

Keyboard character sets:
http://www.geocities.com/chen_levkovich/ (I can't find the medial ya--where is it?)

Conjugating the near future

Hebrew has a "futur proche" tense.

ani omedet lixtov (I'm going to write.)
Use the verb "stand": omed, omedet, omdim, omdot

It certainly makes life easier than the future tense, which is simliar to the Arabic present.

Use a static verb of motion instead of "going," which is used in English, French, and Spanish.

It must be Standard Israeli Hebrew (SIH)--I will have to ask someone if it is found in earlier iterations of the language.

Who knows seven? The gematriya of Shabbat

wine (yayin) 10 + 10 + 50 = 70 --> 7
Challah (bread)
meat (basar) 2 beth + sin + resh
dag (fish) daleth 4 + gimmel 3 = 7

Nun ן נ is the letter of the month of Cheshvan חשון

Hebrew Calendar: Wed, 29 October 2008 - 30th of Tishrei, 5769 - Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan (the new moon of the month of cheshvan)So Tuesday night was Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, the last day of Tishrei, and tonight will be (I"H) the first day of Cheshvan. Is that confusing, or what? Rosh Chodesh this year is two days this month--one day in Tishrei and one day in Cheshvan.

Nun is the letter of the month--it represents Moshiach. It is bent in galut (exile) and is upright when Redemption comes. Got the letters from Chen's keyboard: ן נ
The long, vertical one is the final form used, at the end of the word. The sound is /n/.

These words' spiritual meanings are related to each other because their numerical values are the same, via their shared gematriya:
נחש [naxash] snake 358 = n/50 + x/8 + sh/300
מש'ח [moshiax] Moshiach 358 = m/40 + sh/300 + i/10 + x/8
The spiritual force of the snake is harnassed for good by the spiritual strength of Moshiach.

This is the 8th month of the year, counting from Nissan. (You can see this in the English month of October, which has the number 8 in it.--from Rabbi M. Kosman) Of course, if you count from Tishrei, then cheshvan is the second month.

The sense of the month is smell. Only that sense refrained from sinning in the Garden of Eden. That sense has a direct line to the soul, which experiences the joy of the sense. On Yom Kippur we refrain from using our sense of taste, but we can use our sense of smell. "The Hebrew word for "smell" (רֵיחַ) is cognate to the word for "spirit" (רוּחַ)."(from web-site below) [reax] and [ruax]

Take the first and last letter of חשון Cheshvan
and you have xen, what is pleasing חן
the middle two letters are like isha (woman), so that we learn that the month of Cheshvan contains the essence of a woman's xen - goodness. Thus, it is no surprise that the yahrzeit of Rachel(the anniversary of the death of Rahel Imenu) falls in this month, on the 11th of Cheshvan.

This month evokes the flood, as its duration was the solar year extending form the 17th to the 28th of the month.

From rosh chodesh shiur (lecture) of Rtn. Sara Leider.
More details on the organ, color, and zodiac sign of the month can be found on The Month of Cheshvan According to the Book of Formation (Sefer Yetzirah) .
Dedicated to the memory of Cousin Laura, whose soul finished its journey in this world as this month began.